Review of WWE: One Night Stand 2007

Introduction

What was last year ECW One Night Stand, this year drops the ECW moniker, and reverts from being a quasi-tribute show to Extreme Championship Wrestling, to a regular WWE pay-per-view event.

The ECW-themed shows were interesting, in that they were deliberately produced to look like smaller shows, and featured matches which catered to fans of the original ECW, which quite literally ran shows out of a bingo hall in Philadelphia.

Last year, John Cena defended his WWE Title against Rob Van Dam, a former ECW favourite. This year, Cena was faced with the challenge of The Great Khali, again for the championship, in a Falls Count Anywhere match. Elsewhere on the card, Edge defended his World Heavyweight Title against Batista, and The Hardy Boyz collided with Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas in a Ladder match, for the Tag Team Titles.

One Night Stand emanated from the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, on 3rd June 2007.

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 fullscreen PAL, and is very good for a DVD of this genre. Compression artefacts are very minor, and are generally limited to the pyrotechnics of the wrestler entrances.

Production values for the show are expectedly high, looking very much like other WWE pay-per-view events this year.

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, and is excellent for a DVD of this genre. Everything is mixed well, so that in-ring action, wrestler theme-music, the crowd, and commentary (provided on various matches by Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole & JBL, and Joey Styles & Tazz), can all be heard clearly.

The 5.1 mix allows the surrounds to carry entrance music, crowd noise, and the referee`s count, with a combination of everything from the front speakers. The 5.1 affords the viewer more of a chance to feel amidst the action, and is a welcome upgrade from the previous year`s 2.0 mix.

For international viewers, there are 2.0 mixes available in Italian, German, Spanish, and French. There are also subtitles in Portuguese, Greek, and Dutch.

Features

There are around twenty minutes worth of extras available here, more than enough considering that the main feature lasts around 2 ¾ hours. There are post-match interviews with John Cena, Mark Henry, and Edge (all of which are worth a listen), as well as the 28th May Monday Night Raw match between Rob Van Dam and Randy Orton. It`s a good match, which an excellent set-up angle for the One Night Stand show.

Conclusion

One Night Stand 2007 began with a match that, by all rights, should have been much higher on the card, as Rob Van Dam faced Randy Orton in a Stretcher match. The concept was that you had to incapacitate your opponent to the degree that you could push them down the aisle on a stretcher. I must admit that I expected a little more from these two, however their match was clearly designed to further build for Randy Orton`s World title challenge.

After a forgettable ECW six-man tag team match, in which CM Punk, The Sandman, and Tommy Dreamer faced Elijah Burke, Marcus Cor Von, and Matt Striker, Matt & Jeff Hardy defended the Tag Team titles against Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin, in a Ladder match.

This was a good match, but unfortunately it fell into the same bracket as so many other Ladder matches, which are all about big falls, and little about great story. True to form, this was an exceptionally hard-hitting contest, with more than enough to make this reviewer wince on several occasions. The story of the match, however, failed to grip me.

In a contest which WWE matchmakers knew would bomb, Kane and Mark Henry then lived up to every expectation of them, before Vince McMahon defended the ECW Title against Bobby Lashley in a No-DQ match.

That stipulation, of course, afforded McMahon`s allies plenty of opportunity to interfere, which they did liberally. Because of this, the match was entertaining in some moments, but I detest the concept of a one-on-one match, that really isn`t.

The "Pudding Match" in which Candice Michelle faced Melina, is about as embarrassing as it gets for any fan of wrestling as a quasi-sport, but at least we then had Edge in the proceeding contest, defending his World Heavyweight Title in a Steel Cage match against Batista. This was another good bout, although I didn`t particularly care for the finish.

The main event of the show saw John Cena defend his WWE Title against The Great Khali, in a Falls Count Anywhere match. Considering how dreadful Khali is, this encounter was a work of art, with every credit possible going to Cena. The surprisingly entertaining match was actually a good way in which to end proceedings.

Overall, One Night Stand 2007 contained a couple of good matches, a couple of abominations, and quite a bit of dross. It was a step down from even the Judgement Day show, which was hardly the event of the year.

As consistently good as the actual DVD productions are on these releases, the old phrase that if you put junk in, you get junk out, still applies. This isn`t the worst show that I`ve ever seen, but it is one for the ardent fan only.